The Questing Beast is a legendary creature of the British Isles.
Overview[]
Dinna think that I disbelieve in the Questing Beast, nor think it nonsense to go look for it. Only, look what happens to the folk that search for it, eh?
What I know is, the Questing Beast is a huge deer, or dragon, or bear, not that we've had bears in Caledonia these 10 centuries gone or more, never mind your dragons! It shows up in a dream, or a vision, or like that, to some poor sod who has a big unanswered question, like: How shall I live? Shall I give my good friend a fortune? Said sod sees this Beast and some how understands it can answer the question, if only he catches it.
So off he goes after the Beast. He always finds it somewhere quick and sets after it, but it's always a bit ahead of him, and he must grow ever more committed, and clever, and devious. Somewhere along the line the Beast leads him into some complete hellhole of trouble. And in the crisis he finds he's a different bloke, see? Changed, like. And the Beast is long gone, but the bloke's new understanding not only works him out of the trouble but also answers his question.
That's the reality of it. Now, versions abound, so dinna be telling me that the Questing Beast is just the great hart from Arthurian legend which Pellinore and Palamedes sought. That hart was one, what you might say, manifestation. Its belly rumbled with the sound of 30 questing hounds.
Be that as it might, in both legend and reality, this Beast can do most anything to elude its hunter: It can heal itself of mortal wound and poisons; it can outrun all but faerie steeds; it can even duplicate itself. In that poem... eh, what was its name? Longtitle... 'The High History of Good Sir Palamedes the Saracen Knight, and of His Following of the Questing Beast,' or some such. It gabs on about Palamedes getting himself a faerie steed and hunting the Beast, then it says:
So that in little drawing near
The quarry, lifteth up his spear
To run him of his malice through.
With that the Beast hopes no escape,
Dissolveth all his lordly shape,
Splitteth him sudden into two.
Sir Palamede in fury runs
Unto the nearer beast, that shuns
The shock, and splits, and splits again,
Until the baffled warrior sees
A myriad swarms of these
A-questing over all the plain.
See, Palamedes gathers up an army of knights to hunt this duplicated Beast. The cunning Beast returns to one form. By the end ofthe day, Palamedes has done no injury to the Beast, but has wounded himself and killed several other knights. Now, that's a Beast for yeh. All this before Palamedes finally returns defeated to Camelot, where the Beast "cometh nestling unto him," and Palamedes has one of these realizations I spoke about before.
Nice idea, hey? I know any number of fae who say, "Ooh, ooh, hope I see the Beast someday." But what I ask is, what is this Beast getting from this setup? Why does it show up, and how does it choose the sod? Here's what I say: The Questing Beast is, so to say, a higher aspect of some folks. I don't say I know many mages, but now and again they talk about an Avatar, which, dinna ask me what it is, but it seems to lead mages on a merry chase from time to time. We have nothing like that Avatar among the Kithain, that I know of, but this Questing Beast seems to fill the job welt enough.
But so far as these mage folk tell me, chasing after the Avatar, what they call "Seeking," is not much of a laugh. The Questing Beast is the same way, and that is why I want no truck with the thing.
References[]
- CTD. Isle of the Mighty, pp. 74-75.